The cars jerk and clang along the track as we climb up, up, up…slowly but steadily up. I look over at my friend. She is smiling wildly and the anticipation on her face is apparent. She is holding on tightly to the cushioned bar snapped snugly over her head and chest. I yell above the clamor, “I don’t think I’m going to like this!” She laughs and says, “Just you wait!”

She has been here before, you see, and I have too, but not like this. Once I began college, my life was much like this, climbing slowly up toward an unknown, but surely exciting, destination. I easily went from one degree program to another all the while thinking, this is it. And then…the drop.

We both scream our heads off. My throat is raw and my eyes are dry from my look of sustained terror. My head is bumping against the safety bar as we plunge and I think to myself, when will it end, oh when will it end? I never should have come here. I paid good money for this. This is crazy!

The problem is that it hasn’t ended…in my life, that is. The degree programs have come to a close, the money is long gone, and there has not been much to show for my efforts, except dusty degrees in cheap frames. “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future” (Jeremiah 29:11 NIV). He has a plan and He gives me hope and, finally, after a decade or more, I feel as if I am on that steady climb upward, again, to an unknown, but worthy destination.

I look over at my friend and she is squealing with delight. She loves rollercoasters and all that comes with them. I take this blink in time to learn an important lesson from her that, possibly, it’s not only the process, but also the sheer joy of the ride that makes life grand.

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